08/11/2021 1:18 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 08/11/2021 1:18 PM
The new Iranian Interior Minister is
General Ahmad Shah Cheraghi
, better known as
Ahmad Vahidi
, a man on Washington's black list and one of those accused by the Argentine Justice of having participated in the organization of the AMIA attack.
It is not the first time that the Iranian theocracy has challenged the West with its nomination.
He had already done so in 2009.
Who is Vahidi?
According to the investigation by prosecutor Alberto Nisman, Vahidi, in his capacity as
commander of the al-Quds Forces,
the expeditionary brigade of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard, "participated in the meeting in which it was decided to carry out the attack in Argentina" and in the one that entrusted the Lebanese militia Hezbollah with his execution.
The al-Quds force is known for orchestrating
Iran's operations abroad.
On Vahidi
weighs "a red alert"
from November of 2007, on the part of Interpol.
Interpol's red notices are alerts for its
187 member countries
.
They are not arrest warrants
per se,
but are sometimes interpreted that way.
Vahidi is one of the five Iranians who appear with Interpol red alert for an Argentine petition against nine Persian citizens accused in Argentina of being the
masterminds of the
terrorist
attack
on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), which in July 1994 left 85 dead .
Memory and Justice 27 years after the AMIA attack.
Photo: Luciano Thieberger.
The new Iranian Interior Minister was, curiously, Defense Minister when then-President Cristina Kichner signed the Memorandum with Iran to resolve the bilateral conflict over AMIA.
History with Vahidi repeats itself now.
The 2009 nomination
In 2009, the BBC published an article titled "Terrorism Suspect Finds Work in Iran" when Vahidi arrived at the Iranian Defense Ministry.
The British network was referring to the decision of the then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to nominate the general as head of Defense,
when Interpol was already looking
for
him
for the 1994 attack.
At that time, the Iranian theocracy believed that the stronger the accusations against Vahidi, the
more likely his support for the nomination to the position.
The accusations of participation in the Buenos Aires attack "will not have any negative impact on the evaluation" of the nominee Vahidi, a source told the BBC at the time.
The accusations, he added,
"rather, may increase your vote."
The nomination then produced the chagrin of US President Barack Obama, who said that the general's presence in the Iranian cabinet was
"disturbing."
At that time, Vahidi's nomination caused a scandal in Argentina.
AMIA spokesmen called it
"an insult" and "an embarrassment."
Vahidi said his country faced numerous security challenges,
including the Israeli army
, and that it would improve Iran's defenses and modernize its army.
Going back to today, Vahidi's appointment to the Iranian cabinet again represents
a setback for efforts
to relaunch the nuclear deal with Iran, which the United States and third parties have been negotiating in Vienna since April.
The United States blacklisted him
in 2010.
Nisman
Nisman pointed to Vahidi as "a
key participant
in the planning" of the attack on the Jewish center "and the one responsible" for having made the decision to go ahead with the attack.
The prosecutor in the AMIA case, Alberto Nisman.
Photo: Mario Quinteros.
"It has been shown that Vahidi participated and approved the decision to attack Amia during a meeting in Iran on August 14, 1993. Iran has always protected terrorists, granting them government posts, but I think never one as high as this," said the prosecutor in 2009, when the general became Minister of Defense.
On January 18, 2015, the prosecutor was found
shot to the head
in his apartment in the Puerto Madero neighborhood.
The following day, he would attend the Chamber of Deputies to give his testimony in the framework of his investigation against President Cristina Kirchner for allegedly covering up the attack on the AMIA through a memorandum of understanding signed with Iran.
Iran has always denied that General Vahidi or the Iranian state had a role in the attack.
Drafting Clarín
Look also
Iran names one of those accused of blowing up AMIA minister of the Interior
What the Taiana Foreign Ministry had said in 2009 when they appointed the accused of the AMIA attack as minister